What Next?
by yay4me
Summary: sequel to 'If Only...'. Rose and Ares get to know each other better.


  
Rose sat at the campfire with Ares. Gabrielle and Xena had gone into town to find some more food. Since Ares had become mortal, he had discovered the many joys of food, and wasted all of theirs before they got halfway out of the village. Now the two sat in an uncomfortable silence.  
Ares stood up and walked around the fire a few times, stomping hs feet.  
"What on earth are you doing?" Rose asked, still looking at the floor.  
"What does it look like? I'm trying to sulk while at the same time look angry."  
Rose raised an eyebrow. "And you are doing this because...?"  
"No reason, just wanted to know if I could do it."  
"Oh."  
The two were once again silent, and the tension mounted as Rose stood and walked up to her father.  
"Why?" She asked, and Ares jumped.  
"Why what?"  
Rose rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you ever come and see me? Talk to me? I am your daughter, after all."  
Ares looked stunned. "Until the 'trial', I didn't even know that you existed. Xena never told me, and I never heard about it. When she was pregnant with you, she told me it was most definately not me. So why didn't you come and see me?"  
Rose tiwddled her thumbs nervously. "Well, the way Mum and Gabby talked about it, you knew all about it... and it was entirely your fault. From what they told me about you, I had only one way to think of you."  
Ares snorted. "She hates me. Anything she says would sound like that, and be toatlly convincing. I don't blame you for believing her."  
Rose smiled, and looked him straight in the eyes.  
"So you don't hate me?" She asked, and Ares smiled back at her.  
"I haven't even been with you a whole two days yet. Let's get to know each other better before we hate each other, okay?"  
Rose sat down at the fire, and fingered a small dagger for gutting fish.  
"You trained Mum, right? Well, I want to be able to fight as well."  
Ares shook his head. "I ruined Xena's life when I did that. I doubt she'd want you to turn out like that too."  
Rose hung her head. "I know... It's just that, well, she's never taught me how to fight. Not even a small kick. Whenever we're attacked by theives, I'm stowed away high up a tree or concealed in a bush. I want to be able to stand my ground and be strong, like Mum and Gabby. Is that too much to ask?"  
  
Xena and Gabrielle walked back to the camp, leading Argo who was laden with lots of food supplies. As they neared it, the sounds of swords clashing in battle reached them. Xena left Gabrielle to gaurd Argo and she rushed into the clearing around the campfire. Rose was holding up her sword, and Ares his. She was almost about to jump inbetween and stop Ares, but then he spoke.  
"Rose, that was good. Very good. But to put up a proper defence, you need to angle the blade a bit more. Like this." He said, demonstrating with his own.  
Rose tried it, and dropped the sword as she saw Xena. Xena stared, then raised her voice. "ROSE! What in Tartaris do you think you are doing?!?"  
"Mum, uh, I was... we weren't... I'm sorry..."  
Ares held a hand up so that he could talk.  
"I was teaching her some basic defense moves. I thought that the daughter of Xena would need to know that sort of stuff. I'm sorry, I should have asked you first."  
Ares backed down as Xena told him off with and endless tirade of all he'd ever done to wrong her and her family.  
He slept in his bedroll on one side of the fire. The women slept on the other. Rose didn't sleep. She sat up and wondered when she had seen someone act like her mother had just done. It was somebody she knew. It was...  
"Gabrielle, and Joxer!"  
So her Mum thought Ares was a complete idiot. As long as he stayed with them and taught her how to fight, Rose didn't care.  
  
For weeks, they travelled around the different towns. Every night, Rose would wake Ares up and the two would practice silently. One night, they finished their training and sat down, to talk.  
"I still don't see the point of this, Rose." Ares said, but he smiled as she sat down next to him.  
"I want to know about you. You are my father, and I haven't seen you for at least what? My entire life up to now. How did you get to know mum? And how did she get pregnant with me?"  
  
Xena stirred in her sleep, and woke up as she heard her name. It was Ares' voice, and that of Rose as well. She lay in her bedroll, feigning sleep, and listened to them talk.  
  
"So, I had lost all hope of ever seeing Xena again. She was dead. No more coming back, ever. Then, one day, I heard her voice again. I was filled with so much releif that she was alive. Even though I'd played mean games with her, and she'd fought back at every chance, I still missed her... uh, freindship. Anyway, I rushed straight over to her and found that she'd lost her memory. I hated to take advantage of her, but there was only one way to help get her lost life back, even if it meant she hated me. So I seduced her when she was vulnerable, and made her think that she loved me. After that, she suddenly became pregnant but assured me that it wasn't my child.  
Then, you were born and your mother took you out of Greece. I no longer could feel her presence in my life." Here he took a deep breath, and Rose leaned towards him to catch the words.  
"One day, a girl who looked like Xena came up to me. She even could fight with a sword. So I decided that if I couldn't have Xena, at least I could dream of her and... well, yeah. That's about all. I was about to marry her when this whole thing happened to me."  
Xena closed her eyes and felt a migraine coming on. Ares had done that? Just so he could think of her all day?  
'Yeah, right.' she thought. 'Ares is just a self-concerned prick. I hate him, he hates me. That's all.'  
But a feeling inside of her prompted another line of thought. 'Maybe I just hate him because it makes it easier to love him... If I deny it, we don't have to be together. That worked for both of us.'  
She fell asleep, and woke the next morning with no reccolection of the last night's thinkings. Only a warm feeling was in her heart, and a longing had been re-awakened.  
  
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How's this for a better one? I've written it slightly different, so I hope it's okay.  
Please review this. I have one or two more parts in the making, but they can't get posted if I don't think anyone'll read them.  
seeya! 


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